That stands for Browning Automatic Rifle. It was our standard SAW before the term was coined for dougboys going into WW1 and was used during WW2 and Korea. It fired a 30.06 round with a standard rate of 600 rounds per minute. It had a 20 round clip and kicked like a fucking mule.

I solved my aggresive cardinal problem this spring by taking a shot at him. Missed of course but gave him second thoughts about his territorial imperative. He's pursuing a mate and flying into other people's windows now.

"I solved my aggresive cardinal problem this spring by taking a shot at him. Missed of course but gave him second thoughts about his territorial imperative. He's pursuing a mate and flying into other people's windows now."

The professor needs a 210 shotgun for birds(Turkeys)and coyotes. A very easy woman's shotgun that is easy on the ears.That could be a perfect wedding gift, not that it's a shotgun wedding. But it would not be as useful to her in Madison. Then we will buy her a lifetime membership to the NRA, and see whether Sullivan has a stroke. With friends like us, she wont need enemies.

Nah. C'mon Big Mike. Where is your imagination? The Professor is damn near a spitting image of Sgt. Suzanne 'Pepper' Anderson. With her superior sense of fashion she would be sporting a snub nose .38 in a garter holster.

Oddly, one of my favorite guns is an SKS that I bought for 90 bucks about 10 years ago. According to the serial number it was made in China during the 1950s. It's about as accurate as you'd expect (5-6" at 100 yds) but never jams. It's a great gun for just going out in the woods if no serious hunting is to be done.

I bought a lot of 7.62x39 when it was $.05/rd, so I can shoot guilt- free.

I joined a local indoor shooting range recently to teach my ten-year old son about guns for reasons I explained here. We go every Saturday. I figure it's my responsibility to teach my son about the realities of guns, rather than repress thoughts of them.

It's fun picking out a new rifle or handgun to try every week. The range rents over a hundred different weapons, ranging from .22 up to .357 Magnum, and all makes and models as far ar I can tell. They also rent rifles, including bolt and lever action hunting rifles, semi automatic military style rifles, as well as shotguns.

Membership includes everything (gun, targets, hearing and eye protection, range access)everything except ammo, which must be purchased on site for use in their weapons.

I highly recommend this sort of thing to anybody remotely curious about their 2nd amendment rights.

Watched "Dillinger" last night - not much of a movie, but dang, they had good guns in those days - BARs, Tommy guns, and it seems every American had a rifle and shotgun locked and loaded and ready to go.

Milius was not much of a director, but I think they fired about a million blanks making that movie.

Hoosier Daddy, I could not have said it better. But remember, despite his handle, American Liberal Elite doesn’t care about Black Africans. I remember 1994 and how Susan Sontag and all her crowd were whining about Bosnia and ignoring Rwanda. Maybe ALE should be forced to watch “Hotel Rwanda”; that might enlighten him. The Tutsis HAD butter; they DIDN’T HAVE guns.

Hoosier Daddy, I could not have said it better. But remember, despite his handle, American Liberal Elite doesn’t care about Black Africans..

Well in fairness Alpha most likely does care about Africans but his idea of helping them is the classic liberal concept of 'we must do something'. The 'something' which would have prevented Rwanada was the deployment of no more than two brigades of peacekeepers with the authority of keeping the peace rather than stand idly by as the Dutch did in Bosnia but the problem with many liberals is that they are hung up on the violence begets violence bumpersticker and when push comes to shove are too willing to be shoved over the cliff. Which leads you to Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur, Congo...but I repeat myself.

That's nice piece Donna. Small, compact and has enough punch to do the job.

I think you also mean an AK-47 :-)

As much as I depise commies, I will give them credit for making one of the best assault rifles made. Cheap, durable, easy to handle. No wonder its the weapon of choice among rogue nations and terrorists ;-)

My AK is a POS.They're really not that good. Yes, they jam. A lot. They're inaccurate. The only reason they have the mystique they do is that they were OK for 60 years ago, and over 30 million of them have been made..

What model and year is your AK? Like any weapon the manufacturer has a lot to do with the quality of the weapon. Also when you talk about inaccuracy, keep in mind the AK-47 was designed with the concept that most of your battlefield firefights took place within 200-300 meters. It was also designed with simplicity taking into account the calibre of soldiers that would be carrying it; mainly, peasant conscripts versus a professional army.

I'll wager you have a knockoff or just a lemon. Anyone I ever spoke with that handled one had nothing but praise.

Note that any military that can afford it will ditch AKs in favor of a M16 or G36..

No argument there. The key phrase though is 'afford it.' For the money, the AK-47 still gave more bang for the buck.

I doubt most AKs will hit anything consistently past 200 yards. It's just not in the design.

One thing about guns is people tend to talk about them a lot, and the talking becomes the reality.

Actually shooting them dispels most of the BS.

There's this wonderful publication that I used to subscribe to, called "Gun Test." It was "Consumer Reports" for guns. No ads, and they bought all the guns they reviewed from retailers. They tested what the consumer would be buying, not picked donations from the gun companies. Great magazine, if it's still around.

John Lynch, I too love the M1A but it's a nostalgic, impractical sort of love. As C4 points out, they are still a la mode where you have to be able to hit several somethings quickly and decisively at medium range (to 700 yds). So long as you keep the bedding right and have a Krieger barrel, they really shoot, and they have that ergonomic perfection (sort of like the Browning Hi-power or the 1911) that makes them inexpressibly satisfying to shoot.

"I was in love and in vain I could tell."

You know that great line in the Wind and the Willows: "Try and love a donkey," said the Gypsy. "Some people can." Well, I got an AR10 and I'm trying to love it. Oddly - it was the progenitor - it doesn't feel as well-balanced as the AR15 that is its decendent. But it shoots. I can regularly hit grapefruit-sized rocks with the second mil-dot: 500 yds. I can see this relationship developing, seasoning, richening, deepening.

Meade probably has an old Model 1911 Another John Browning design. I recommend everyone read his fascinating biography, but all editions seem to be out of print, according to Amazon.

Meade should probably go gun shopping before he moves up to cheeseland. Does Meade shoot? Trap, skeet, and sporting clays are all a lot of fun. I don't recommend starting out with a .410 unless Ann had fabulous eye-hand coordination. A 20 ga. puts more shot in the air than a .410 without having the recoil of a 12 ga. An autoloader would minimize the peak shock to the shoulder pocket.

I have tried both an AK and an AR-15, from a friend's collection, and I found the AK easier to shoot and hit targets.

They're really not that good. Yes, they jam. A lot. They're inaccurate.

You need to get it checked by a gunsmith, then. AK's are noted for reliability, if they were made by a Soviet-bloc country. I can't speak for the ones home-made by the Afghanis. Try replacing the magazines, and if that doesn't work, the springs.

The BAR shown in the photo was a John Moses Browning design. Browning was the single best gun designer of the 20th century.

I doubt most AKs will hit anything consistently past 200 yards. It's just not in the design..

That's true but again we're talking an assault weapon here; they aren't designed for accuracy for 200 yards. The AK-47 was designed for the firefights which based upon studies in WW2 were in the range of 200-300 meters. 200 yards is 2 football fields. Outside of sniping or just laying down suppressing fire, you're probably hard pressed to hit an aimed target at that range unless you're Sgt. York :-)

My friend Steve pointed this out: sporting arms tend to follow military trends because servicemen leave the armed forces and want to purchase sporting arms that they are familiar with.

Before the World Wars, America was a lever-action nation of hunters. Returning GIs wanted to use bolt action and gas operated rifles.

Now, we have had 40 years of the M16, and quite naturally that has filtered into the larger hunting community. Returning servicemen want to use the black plastic-furniture they are familiar with from the M16.

Soooo, we get the "assault weapons" that look like military weapons and get banned by civilians. The thing is bolt- action firearms were military weapons! They were "military looking" in the 1950s, when they became the dominant hunting arm.

Now it's the "assault weapon," which has been the dominant infantry arm for over 50 years. Let's get over it.

My grandfather's cousin worked in the BAR factory during WWII and liberated several for the race war that many white Southerners feared would happen. Don't know where they would get ammo for it.

My grandmother (who would have been 111 Wednesday) told me about shooting grandpa's 12 gauge at a squirrel once when she thought it was her 410. She landed on her back. They hunted together a lot, but my father apparently didn't like it, though he kept their guns.

Wish I could join your range; that sounds great. Since Obama was elected, I can't get on my range. Too many people there shooting. Ya can barely get in the door. I've talked to the owners and they have never done business like they have since he was elected. Some of us are clinging to brand new guns.

I recommend that everyone learns about guns, even if you don't like them and want to ban them. At least know what they can and can't do.

I have a Loony Left relative that is in the Maryland Senate. She got into into about guns over dinner: "I don't want my neighbor to have guns because our sons hang out together over there. Don't want him getting shot dead because they're playing with guns. And I can't control how other people raise their kids."

Fen: "They could be having sex over there too"

Loon: ?

Fen: "Getting girls pregnant, catching STDs. But they've had sex education classes. So they know how to safely handle sex"

"But you won't allow kids to be taught firearms safety. Because you think if they are exposed to firearms, they will start using them... sound familiar?"

JohnL My friend Steve pointed this out: sporting arms tend to follow military trends because servicemen leave the armed forces and want to purchase sporting arms that they are familiar with.

Before the World Wars, America was a lever-action nation of hunters. Returning GIs wanted to use bolt action and gas operated rifles.

Now, we have had 40 years of the M16, and quite naturally that has filtered into the larger hunting community. Returning servicemen want to use the black plastic-furniture they are familiar with from the M16.

Excellent point. After "living with" an M16 in the field for 6 years, it starts to become an extension of yourself. Two years after I got out, a friend let me shoot his AR15. It was like Christmas morning for me.

Soooo, we get the "assault weapons" that look like military weapons and get banned by civilians. The thing is bolt- action firearms were military weapons! They were "military looking" in the 1950s, when they became the dominant hunting arm.

Now it's the "assault weapon," which has been the dominant infantry arm for over 50 years. Let's get over it.

The latest Gun Control attack is going to be a Treaty affirmed to be USA law that bans ammunition without markers tied to each gun. In other words, like George III in 1775, they will not ban guns, just take control of the ammunition sources. That was THE reason for the Lexington and Concord battle that began the first Revolution.

The BAR under discussion here is not the one I saw demonstrated in basic training. It fired a .45 caliber load and would not change the timbre of you voice if held against your groin when fired. A Private Saffold can attest to this. My personal favorite was the M-1. You could not do as snappy an Inspection Arms with the M-14 as with the M-1 and, more importantly to me, my scores with the M-1 were higher on KD and Train Fire ranges.

@Charlie, if I was in a firefight I'd rather have the M14 than either the M1 (not as many rounds in a clip, no automatic fire capability, and that distinctive ping that the enemy can listen for to tell them when the clip is empty) or the M16 (a drop of sweat or a grain of pollen, either one, could make it jam).

In Iraq they discovered that an M14 can punch through cinder block walls, while an M16 can't.